december 7th
As expected it’s going to be a young team tonight against Ajax. Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires, Gilberto, Jens Lehmann and Sol Campbell are all rested while Dennis Bergkamp misses the chance of a final competitive game against Ajax with an injury. I really hope he tries Lauren at left back and Eboue on the right even though Pascal Cygan is in the squad. We can’t go into the games with Chelsea and Man United with him there, we just can’t. A good performance from Lauren might convince the boss he’s got a better option (although judging by his comments at the bottom of this article it seems Pascal is there until Ashley Cole gets back). Otherwise I’m going to have to go to London with some very large men and convince him another way. The full squad for tonight’s game is here. The Sun reports that Sebastian Larsson will get his first Champions League start and I’m happy to see it. From the bits and pieces we’ve seen of him he’s looked like he’s got something about him so it will be interesting to see how he copes. AW says “I want to give Larsson a chance because he has done well in training. He’s a real team player. I look at that as an education for our young players — I can give them a game when they deserve it. He deserves one.”
As he ruled out any move to Real Madrid the boss spoke about our worrying away form and although he points to the team going unbeaten away from home in two campaigns there is a bit of a difference now. We had more players who would get stuck in and more than a couple of players at the very peak of their form who seem to be waning now. He said “It’s a pleasure to work with this team but it does lack a little bit of physical power. I believe this team will surprise you. I don’t deny we are not perfect but we are getting there and I’m confident we will redress the problems we had at Bolton in the coming games.”
The problem when it comes to being physical is that some players just cannot play that game. I’m sure the boss can tell Gilberto a hundred times to be harder in the tackle but that’s just not the kind of player he is. If Arsene can add some physicality to this squad without buying then that will be a big achievement. It used to be a case that teams were intimidated by us because we had a squad full of big, strong players. Not so any more and when you hear Bolton players say that everyone knows that if you get physical with Arsenal you knock them out of their stride it really is an issue that needs addressing and fast. And we want fair and physical not the disgusting shit we’ve seen twice this season from Michael Essien who should have had two red cards so far this season. His ‘tackle‘ in last night’s game was outrageous.
T-shirt competition – please see yesterday’s blog for more. The winner will be announced on Friday morning.
Finally today happy birthday to Mrs Blogs who is having a nice lie in while poor old Mr Blogs has to go to work with Shepherd’s Pie for his lunch. Laters, all.
